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About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 2017)
HEPPNER G T 50¢ Murray’s Drug takes top parade honors azette imes VOL. 136 NO. 49 8 Pages Wednesday, December 13, 2017 Morrow County, Heppner, Oregon Murray’s Drug float depicting “A Soldier’s Christmas” took top honors for Best Commercial Float/Entry. – Contributed photo. The city of Heppner has announced the winners of the 2017 Christmas parade of lights that was held on Dec. 7 at 5:30 p.m. in downtown Heppner. -Best Community Float/Entry: Yuki Ookami. -Best Commercial Float/Entry: Murray’s Drug. -Best Use of Lights Entry: Columbia Basin Electric. Santa and Mrs. Claus take a break for a quick photo during the parade. – Photo by David Sykes. Morgan Cutsforth and Makayla Fredricks got all dressed up for the season. – Photo by David Sykes. Celebrate Heppner Christmas Thursday, Dec. 14 at 6 p.m. Rewards cards and shopping local bring Christ- mas to Heppner with the Celebrate Heppner Christ- mas event this Thursday, Dec. 14, starting at 6 p.m. at the Morrow County Fair- grounds. Community mem- bers are invited to bring their rewards cards and participate in this commu- nity get-together. The event will start with a spaghetti dinner served by the Heppner Track/Cross Country parents for $7 per person. Pictures with Santa, Mrs. Santa and the elves will be available from 6-7 p.m. for $5. Rewards cards, with your name written on them, will need to be dropped into the appropri- ate bags in the denomi- nations required for that particular prize. A rewards card exchange table will be available for trading up or down. It has been reported that there are 120 items in the $10 category, 56 in the $20 category and 31 in the $50 category. Rewards items include furniture, toys, games, puzzles, jew- elry, candles, cook books, cutting boards, lotions, tools, clothing and coffee as well as gift certificates for restaurants, pubs, stores, hair salons and massages. Penny board and raffle items will be available and drawing for rewards cards items will begin at 7 p.m. City steps in for problem property cleanup Council runs out of patience on Water Street By David Sykes After multiple citations, warnings and extensions, the Heppner City Council ran out of patience Monday, and finally ordered the city crew to move onto a Water Street property, clean it up and bill the land owner for the work. If the landowner refuses to pay the bill, the city has the right to put a lien on the property, and ultimately, if necessary, foreclose to receive pay- ment. The landowner at 475 and 495 Water St. has over the years been given mul- tiple opportunities, and time extensions, to clean up junk, trash, old appliances, and car bodies that litter the grounds, but has failed to complete the job. Neigh- bors have attended multiple council meetings complain- ing of the trash, and now the city has decided to take matters into its own hands. It is against city ordinance to maintain what is called “nuisance” properties, and the city earlier passed a new ordinance giving it increased rights to do the cleanup, and ultimately foreclose if necessary. The problem property is owned by Tareena Healy. Jim Healy has been work- ing for the past several months cleaning up the lots, however not enough was done to satisfy the city ordinance. Jim Healy was at Monday’s council meet- ing and said he had hoped to purchase the lots from Tareena, but she had raised the price to the point he can no longer afford to. He said since the council first threatened legal action several months ago he has removed 14 or 15 disabled vehicles, trash and other debris from the property, but admitted he had not completed the cleanup. Among other things there were still reportedly two unlicensed vehicles and an RV on the property, piles of scrap metal and other trash. He thanked the council for the extensions and patience it has given on the property. Some on the council agreed that the property was looking better, but was still not cleaned up good enough to meet the ordi- nance requirements. “There has been lots of progress,” said council member John Paisly Cutsforth, age 5, tells Santa and Mrs. Claus what she wants for Christmas. – Photo by David Sykes. Courthouse gets festive County clerk, Bobbi Childers, along with Kandy Boyd and Theresa Craw- ford from the clerk’s office raided the basement of the courthouse finding decora- tions that were used years ago by Kay Proctor, of Heppner, when she did the decorating. They thought it would be nice to make the courthouse more festive. “Kay always did a beautiful job, so we went to the basement and found some of her notes and tried to do some of the same things,” Childers said. Kelsey Greenup- Fennern and Gayle Gu- tierez helped with the deco- rations, Jaylene Papineau made a beautiful bow and Rose Jewett helped by mak- ing a bow while she was visiting the courthouse on business. They invite you to stop by the courthouse and check out the changes to the first floor and the staircase. County Commission backs extension district vote Avoids endorsement -See CLEANUP/PAGE THREE By David Sykes Gazette-Times Trophy Corner The Heppner Gazette- Times wants to see pic- tures of your trophy ani- mals from this hunting season. Stop by to have your picture taken, drop off photos, mail them to PO Box 337 in Heppner, email them to editor@ rapidserve. net or text cell phone photos to 541-980-6674. Chace Jones, 12, of Heppner bagged his first cow elk in the Murders Creek unit. -Con- tributed photo Saying it approves sending the formation of a new extension taxing dis- trict to voters for approval, but does not come out and endorse it, the Morrow County Commission voted yes last week to put the mat- ter on the ballot, “and let the voters decide.” The commission held a public hearing on the proposed new district be- fore making its decision, and several commissioners were wary of an outright endorsement of the new district. The new district has been requested by the extension agencies of Mor- row and Umatilla Coun- ties, and if approved would encompass both counties. The new district will help stabilize funding for 4-H, the agricultural research center and other extension services, and extension of- ficials have been traveling around receiving approval of all city councils in both counties. All cities gave their okay, but some ex- pressed the same sentiment -See COUNTY/PAGE THREE 20% OFF 50% OFF Montana Silversmith Jewelry now thru Christmas ALL CHRISTMAS DECOR! Morrow County Grain Growers Green Feed & Seed 242 W. Linden Way, Heppner • 676-9422 • 989-8221 (MCGG main office)
